Velociraptor
Velociraptors were dinosaurs that lived in the Cretaceous Period of Mongolia and China, Asia. The dinosaur was made popular by the 1993 film Jurassic Park, and they also appear as the quaternary antagonists of Disney's 2000 CGI film Dinosaur ''and antagonists in ''The Good Dinosaur ''and in the episode from TV series [[The Legend of Tarzan|''The Legend of Tarzan]].'' Personality Although they are antagonists, they are aggressive hunters who need food to survive, but they have no malicious intent. They just care about feeding themselves in order to survive, though this doesn’t make them much villainous. Appearances Dinosaur As Aladar and the lemurs walk through the barren wasteland, they see a Velociraptor go by, Aladar and the lemurs became curious on what it is and decide to check it out. When they find it, the raptor snarls at them, and soon seven others appear and start chasing them. They soon ran away when the herd, led by Kron, came by. After Aladar walked the opposite direction of the herd, he and the lemurs looked at the herd. Yar was about to convince Aladar not to be in the herd until Zini spots the Velociraptors, whereupon Aladar and his family then decide to join the herd for protection against the raptors. Although very dangerous, the raptors are not seen as a major threat by the adult dinosaurs in the herd, as Eema tells Aladar that they are the only predators following them. Later as the herd migrates to find some water, Aladar sees one of the dinosaurs, Struthiomimus has died of exhaustion and some Velociraptors coming near by and there were three of them only. With no choice on helping the dead dinosaur, Aladar decides to keep on going, as the raptors soon start to feast on it. A little later, when Eema collapsed, Aladar told her that she must get up without getting eaten, and that the raptors are out there, waiting. However, the Velociraptors have already eaten their fill. Suddenly, two Carnotaurus come and scare them away. They are not seen again for the remainder of the movie. Disney Parks A Velociraptor appears on the ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom, DINOSAUR. It is seen right after the riders see the Parasaurolophus. It is identified as "Raptor". Toy Story 3 Gallery Trivia *The Velociraptors in ''Dinosaur were originally supposed to have feathers. David Krentz said that the feathered were to be "like a little band of Indians with the alpha male having a feather crown that looked almost a headdress." Originally, when Aladar encounters them, he would not know what to make of the raptors appearance and their exotic appeal would have lead Aladar into the raptors' trap.(April 11, 2000) Disney Dinosaur Interviews David Krentz Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette According to director Eric Leighton the computer animators were not sure how they could create the feathers and the studio did not want to get married to a process that the animators were not sure they could deliver on a budget.(May 2000) Disney Dinosaur Interviews Directors: Leighton & Zondag. Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette Krentz noted that there was a feather shader that could have been applied to the Velociraptors, but further stated, "It would have been a lot of extra work on an already difficult movie." **Ironically, this initial design would have been more accurate to real life. In 2007, a Velociraptor forearm with bumps for feather attachment was discovered, confirming that Velociraptor did in fact have feathers. Prior to this discovery, fossils of Velociraptor's smaller relatives, Microraptor and Sinornithosaurus, are shown with impressions of feathers. *Their size is more accurate to their real-life counterpart than those in Jurassic Park, as raptors in the said movie actually more based on Deinonychus or Achillobator. *At one point, when the Velociraptor was still feathered, the raptor pack was going to consist of only one Velociraptor, a Avimimus and Garudimimus.(March 31, 2000) Disney Dinosaur Interview: William Stout Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette. *In the early stages of the production of Dinosaur, Utahraptor, Velociraptor's larger and lesser known cousin, was originally planned to co-star in the film with its smaller relative. But ultimately, only the more popular Velociraptor made it to the final cut. *A famous fossil exists of a Velociraptor locked in combat with a Protoceratops (a smaller, distant cousin to Triceratops). Called the "Fighting Dinosaurs", the two were preserved by either a sandstorm or a collapsing sand dune, with the Velociraptor using its deadly foot claws to kill the Protoceratops and the Protoceratops biting the Velociraptor's arm. *Examination of Velociraptor's eyes indicates that the dinosaur was nocturnal, much like owls. *In reality, Velociraptor lacked crests unlike those seen in Dinosaur. *The film uses vocals recorded from a crew member's pet chihuahua. *The blue bigger Velociraptor is most likely the leader of the pack. ** It's very possible that the blue-crested Velociraptor is male while the other members of the pack are females (likely his harem). Notes and references External links *For information on the real dinosaur, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor Category:Dinosaurs